Liberty:
Williams Stadium
School Founded: 1971
Location: Lynchburg, Virginia
Football Founded: 1973
Current
Conference: Big South
Facilities: 19,200 seat Williams Stadium. Site: On the
Liberty University campus near the main entrance and adjacent to the Hancock
Athletic Center
A field house, complete
with a locker room, equipment room and training room, is located at the north
end of the stadium. A five-story football tower complete with 18 luxury suites
and a fully functional media center is located above the west bleachers. Visiting
teams are provided a team room in the stadium’s south end zone.
Playing Surface:
FieldTurf - The end zones are red with a white line bordering the field and the
school’s logo is displayed in color in the middle of the field.
Williams Stadium enters its
23rd season of hosting Liberty Football in 2011. Liberty Mountain’s gridiron
edifice opened its doors on Oct. 21, 1989, as the Flames played host to the
Tigers of Towson State. After giving up a 42-yard field goal early in the first
quarter, Liberty scored 31 unanswered points to thrill a then record-setting
homecoming crowd of 12,750 fans with a 37-19 victory.
For the fourth
consecutive season, attendance records have fallen at Williams Stadium. All of
the top 10 attended games at Williams Stadium have come during head coach Danny
Rocco’s first three seasons with the Flames. After a record-setting 2006
season, Liberty continued its high marks in 2007. The Flames averaged a
school-record 14,190 fans per contest during the 2007 season, ranking sixth in
the nation as Williams Stadium was filled at 118.3 percent capacity. The mark
broke the previous average record of 11,128 fans set in 2006, Rocco’s first
year at the helm.
TV Market(s): Roanoke-Lynchburg (67th TV market)
All-time Record: 198-198-4 4 conference titles.
Claimed National
Championships: None
Rivalries:
- Coastal Carolina
Student Population: 19,214 (13,400 Undergraduate)
Endowment: $54.1 Million
Athletic Budget: $20 million
FBS Aspirations: First-year Liberty University football coach
Turner Gill on Tuesday expressed confidence that the Flames' desired shift from
FCS to FBS will be accomplished in the next four years. LU has declared itself
FBS-ready, and awaits an invitation from an FBS league, a requirement for FBS
membership.
Asked about his message
to recruits regarding the Flames' potential move to college football's top
tier, Gill's response included, "If you decide to come here within the
next four years, then we will be FBS."
Liberty athletics
director Jeff Barber said of his coach's projection, "I think that's very
likely."
In May, LU announced its
goal of FBS status. The Flames already are Division I in all 20 of their
sports, but their football program belongs to the FCS, and plays in the Big
South Conference.
Barber said leagues he
thinks would be good fits for Liberty at this stage are Conference USA, the
Mid-American Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference.
LU continues
communication with those conferences, according to Barber. He said he believes
some leagues are "just kind of stopping (membership changes) for right now
and saying, 'OK, let's kind of catch our breath before we move forward.' "
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